The College of Charleston Cougars acquired some big transfer portal players from the power four conference level.
The crop of players are local to the Carolinas as three big names headline the Cougars transfer class ahead of the 2026 college baseball season.
Former South Carolina Gamecock Will Tippett – After three seasons with the South Carolina Gamecocks, Will Tippett is headed to the coastline to play for the College of Charleston.
In his career with the Gamecocks, he had a .181 batting average with 51 total hits. He also had 11 home runs throughout his career with South Carolina.
Tippett also has shown potential to be a solid defender. With the Gamecocks, he had a career fielding percentage above .950 with just 12 errors over the course of three college baseball seasons.
Former North Carolina Tar Heels Reece Holbrook and Ryan Hench – Two former North Carolina Tar Heels are heading to the College of Charleston in 2026.
Reece Holbrook, the son of the Cougars’ head coach Chad Holbrook, is heading to Charleston after three seasons in Chapel Hill.
In 2025, he was North Carolina’s designated pinch runner. In his full career with the Tar Heels, Holbrook has 12 hits, 15 RBI, and 26 runs.
Ryan Hench is heading to the College of Charleston after spending his freshman season with North Carolina.
He only pitched one full inning and recorded a strikeout in a game against the Stanford Cardinal on March 7.
Despite that, Hench was a big-time talent coming out of high school. During his senior season with Orange High School in Hillsborough, N.C., he had a 0.55 ERA in 25 1/3 innings of work. Over that same stretch, he had 40 strikeouts compared to just three walks.
Photo: South Carolina’s Will Tippett (13) makes a throw during an NCAA regional baseball game on Saturday, June 1, 2024, in Raleigh, N.C. (AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
